ByTZVI JOFFRE

Nine people were injured in an explosion at the Sepahan Nargostar chemical and fireworks factory in the city of Shahin Shahr in Iran’s Isfahan Province on Saturday night, Iranian media reported Sunday. The cause of the blast was said to be under investigation.

The factory is a producer of industrial and commercial explosive materials and is under the supervision of the National Security Council, according to IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency), the official government-controlled news agency. The company produces various types of fireworks and gunpowder, as well as nitrate, sodium, potassium, strontium, calcium, copper and barium, the report said.

The explosion took place at about 3:36 a.m. local time (2:06 a.m. Israel time), IRNA reported.

Iranian media only reported about the incident late Sunday morning. But social-media users already were reporting about it overnight. They had seen and heard a large explosion that shook their windows and felt a shock wave, they said.

It was unclear why Iranian media waited hours until reporting the incident.

The Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA), which produces a variety of aircraft for Iranian and pro-Iranian forces, is located in Shahin Shahr, sparking speculation on social media that the explosion was related to it.
The blast actually took place at HESA and not at the explosives factory, The Guardian reported later on Sunday. The explosion was linked to the shooting down of a drone by Israel near the Jordanian border last week, the report said. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was an Iranian drone sent from either Iraq or Syria. The IDF collected fragments of the destroyed aircraft for further examination.

The factory is located about 95 km. from the Natanz nuclear complex, where an explosion reportedly damaged thousands of centrifuges last month.

The news of the explosion comes just days after Iranian officials reported major progress in negotiations on renewing the Iran nuclear deal.

Last Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said all parties to the talks have agreed to lift “all major sanctions” on Iranian oil, petrochemicals, shipping, insurance and the central bank.

“We have taken the main step and discussed the details,” Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency quoted him as saying. “The main agreement has been reached... There are issues we are discussing to reach a final agreement.”

Last year, a series of explosions and fires hit industrial sites across Iran, including a number of petrochemical plants. Iranian officials referred to most of the cases as incidents or accidents, although some reports have claimed that at least some of them involved foul play.

A number of the explosions last year reportedly took place at or near nuclear facilities, including the Natanz nuclear complex and a factory not far from the warehouse where Iran’s nuclear archive was found by Israel.

In some of the incidents last year that were linked to military or nuclear sites, Iranian media also waited hours before reporting about them and even gave the wrong locations.

In one incident near Tehran, Iranian officials said an explosion had taken place due to a gas tank in Parchin. Later reports indicated that the explosion had actually taken place at a ballistic-missile facility in Khojir.